============ Contributing ============ There is a great need for contributions to Salt and patches are welcome! The goal here is to make contributions clear, make sure there is a trail for where the code has come from, and most importantly, to give credit where credit is due! There are a number of ways to contribute to Salt development. For details on how to contribute documentation improvements please review :ref:`Writing Salt Documentation `. .. _github-pull-request: Sending a GitHub pull request ============================= Sending pull requests on GitHub is the preferred method for receiving contributions. The workflow advice below mirrors `GitHub's own guide `_ and is well worth reading. #. `Fork saltstack/salt`_ on GitHub. #. Make a local clone of your fork. .. code-block:: bash git clone git@github.com:my-account/salt.git cd salt #. Add `saltstack/salt`_ as a git remote. .. code-block:: bash git remote add upstream https://github.com/saltstack/salt.git #. Create a new branch in your clone. .. note:: A branch should have one purpose. For example, "Fix bug X," or "Add feature Y". Multiple unrelated fixes and/or features should be isolated into separate branches. If you're working on a fix, create your branch from the oldest release branch having the bug. See :ref:`Which Salt Branch? `. .. code-block:: bash git fetch upstream git checkout -b fix-broken-thing upstream/2015.5 If you're working on a feature, create your branch from the develop branch. .. code-block:: bash git fetch upstream git checkout -b add-cool-feature upstream/develop #. Edit and commit changes to your branch. .. code-block:: bash vim path/to/file1 path/to/file2 git diff git add path/to/file1 path/to/file2 git commit Write a short, descriptive commit title and a longer commit message if necessary. .. note:: If your change fixes a bug or implements a feature already filed in the `issue tracker `_, be sure to reference the issue number in the commit message body. .. code-block:: bash fix broken things in file1 and file2 Fixes #31337. The issue is now eradicated from file1 and file2. # Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting # with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit. # On branch fix-broken-thing # Changes to be committed: # modified: path/to/file1 # modified: path/to/file2 If you get stuck, there are many introductory Git resources on http://help.github.com. #. Push your locally-committed changes to your GitHub fork, .. note:: You may want to rebase before pushing to work out any potential conflicts. .. code-block:: bash git fetch upstream git rebase upstream/2015.5 fix-broken-thing git push --set-upstream origin fix-broken-thing or, .. code-block:: bash git fetch upstream git rebase upstream/develop add-cool-feature git push --set-upstream origin add-cool-feature #. Find the branch on your GitHub salt fork. https://github.com/my-account/salt/branches/fix-broken-thing #. Open a new pull request. Click on ``Pull Request`` on the right near the top of the page, https://github.com/my-account/salt/pull/new/fix-broken-thing #. If your branch is a fix for a release branch, choose that as the base branch (e.g. ``2015.5``), https://github.com/my-account/salt/compare/saltstack:2015.5...fix-broken-thing If your branch is a feature, choose ``develop`` as the base branch, https://github.com/my-account/salt/compare/saltstack:develop...add-cool-feature #. Review that the proposed changes are what you expect. #. Write a descriptive comment. Include links to related issues (e.g. 'Fixes #31337.') in the comment field. #. Click ``Create pull request``. #. Salt project members will review your pull request and automated tests will run on it. If you recognize any test failures as being related to your proposed changes or if a reviewer asks for modifications: #. Make the new changes in your local clone on the same local branch. #. Push the branch to GitHub again using the same commands as before. #. New and updated commits will be added to the pull request automatically. #. Feel free to add a comment to the discussion. .. note:: Jenkins Pull request against `saltstack/salt`_ are automatically tested on a variety of operating systems and configurations. On average these tests take 30 minutes. Depending on your GitHub notification settings you may also receive an email message about the test results. Test progress and results can be found at http://jenkins.saltstack.com/. .. _which-salt-branch: Which Salt branch? ================== GitHub will open pull requests against Salt's main branch, ``develop``, by default. Ideally features should go into ``develop`` and bug fixes should go into the oldest supported release branch affected by the bug. See :ref:`Sending a GitHub pull request `. If you have a bug fix and have already forked your working branch from ``develop`` and do not know how to rebase your commits against another branch, then submit it to ``develop`` anyway and we'll be sure to backport it to the correct place. The current release branch -------------------------- The current release branch is the most recent stable release. Pull requests containing bug fixes should be made against the release branch. The branch name will be a date-based name such as ``2015.5``. Bug fixes are made on this branch so that minor releases can be cut from this branch without introducing surprises and new features. This approach maximizes stability. The Salt development team will "merge-forward" any fixes made on the release branch to the ``develop`` branch once the pull request has been accepted. This keeps the fix in isolation on the release branch and also keeps the ``develop`` branch up-to-date. .. note:: Closing GitHub issues from commits This "merge-forward" strategy requires that `the magic keywords to close a GitHub issue `_ appear in the commit message text directly. Only including the text in a pull request will not close the issue. GitHub will close the referenced issue once the *commit* containing the magic text is merged into the default branch (``develop``). Any magic text input only into the pull request description will not be seen at the Git-level when those commits are merged-forward. In other words, only the commits are merged-forward and not the pull request. The ``develop`` branch ---------------------- The ``develop`` branch is unstable and bleeding-edge. Pull requests containing feature additions or non-bug-fix changes should be made against the ``develop`` branch. The Salt development team will back-port bug fixes made to ``develop`` to the current release branch if the contributor cannot create the pull request against that branch. Keeping Salt Forks in Sync ========================== Salt is advancing quickly. It is therefore critical to pull upstream changes from upstream into your fork on a regular basis. Nothing is worse than putting hard work into a pull request only to see bunches of merge conflicts because it has diverged too far from upstream. .. seealso:: `GitHub Fork a Repo Guide`_ The following assumes ``origin`` is the name of your fork and ``upstream`` is the name of the main `saltstack/salt`_ repository. #. View existing remotes. .. code-block:: bash git remote -v #. Add the ``upstream`` remote. .. code-block:: bash # For ssh github git remote add upstream git@github.com:saltstack/salt.git # For https github git remote add upstream https://github.com/saltstack/salt.git #. Pull upstream changes into your clone. .. code-block:: bash git fetch upstream #. Update your copy of the ``develop`` branch. .. code-block:: bash git checkout develop git merge --ff-only upstream/develop If Git complains that a fast-forward merge is not possible, you have local commits. * Run ``git pull --rebase origin develop`` to rebase your changes on top of the upstream changes. * Or, run ``git branch `` to create a new branch with your commits. You will then need to reset your ``develop`` branch before updating it with the changes from upstream. If Git complains that local files will be overwritten, you have changes to files in your working directory. Run ``git status`` to see the files in question. #. Update your fork. .. code-block:: bash git push origin develop #. Repeat the previous two steps for any other branches you work with, such as the current release branch. Posting patches to the mailing list =================================== Patches will also be accepted by email. Format patches using `git format-patch`_ and send them to the `salt-users`_ mailing list. The contributor will then get credit for the patch, and the Salt community will have an archive of the patch and a place for discussion. .. _backporting-pull-requests: Backporting Pull Requests ========================= If a bug is fixed on ``develop`` and the bug is also present on a currently-supported release branch it will need to be back-ported to all applicable branches. .. note:: Most Salt contributors can skip these instructions These instructions do not need to be read in order to contribute to the Salt project! The SaltStack team will back-port fixes on behalf of contributors in order to keep the contribution process easy. These instructions are intended for frequent Salt contributors, advanced Git users, SaltStack employees, or independent souls who wish to back-port changes themselves. It is often easiest to fix a bug on the oldest supported release branch and then merge that branch forward into ``develop`` (as described earlier in this document). When that is not possible the fix must be back-ported, or copied, into any other affected branches. These steps assume a pull request ``#1234`` has been merged into ``develop``. And ``upstream`` is the name of the remote pointing to the main Salt repo. 1. Identify the oldest supported release branch that is affected by the bug. 2. Create a new branch for the back-port by reusing the same branch from the original pull request. Name the branch ``bp-`` and use the number of the original pull request. .. code-block:: bash git fetch upstream refs/pull/1234/head:bp-1234 git checkout bp-1234 3. Find the parent commit of the original pull request. The parent commit of the original pull request must be known in order to rebase onto a release branch. The easiest way to find this is on GitHub. Open the original pull request on GitHub and find the first commit in the list of commits. Select and copy the SHA for that commit. The parent of that commit can be specified by appending ``~1`` to the end. 4. Rebase the new branch on top of the release branch. * ```` is the branch identified in step #1. * ```` is the SHA identified in step #3 -- don't forget to add ``~1`` to the end! .. code-block:: bash git rebase --onto bp-1234 Note, release branches prior to ``2015.5`` will not be able to make use of rebase and must use cherry-picking instead. 5. Push the back-port branch to GitHub and open a new pull request. Opening a pull request for the back-port allows for the test suite and normal code-review process. .. code-block:: bash git push -u origin bp-1234 Issue and Pull Request Labeling System ====================================== SaltStack uses several labeling schemes to help facilitate code contributions and bug resolution. See the :ref:`Labels and Milestones ` documentation for more information. .. _`saltstack/salt`: https://github.com/saltstack/salt .. _`GitHub Fork a Repo Guide`: https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo .. _`GitHub issue tracker`: https://github.com/saltstack/salt/issues .. _`Fork saltstack/salt`: https://github.com/saltstack/salt/fork .. _'Git resources`: https://help.github.com/articles/good-resources-for-learning-git-and-github/ .. _`Closing issues via commit message`: https://help.github.com/articles/closing-issues-via-commit-messages .. _`git format-patch`: https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-format-patch.html